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Unscripted™ Entrepreneurship:A Business That Pays More Than Money, It Pays Time.

"Fastlane" is an entrepreneur discussion forum based on The Unscripted Entrepreneurial Framework (TUNEF) outlined in the two best-selling books by MJ DeMarco (The Millionaire Fastlane and UNSCRIPTED™). From multimillionaires to digital nomads, the forum features real entrepreneurs creating real businesses.

I'm a 21-year-old (aspiring) entrepreneur. I have a humble $8000 in my bank account and I'm currently living in my car (yep, you read that correctly) while learning how to program. Luckily, my expenses are around $300-500/month, so I have more than enough time to code the product I'm looking to create.

*flashback transition*

As a 3rd-year university student majoring computer-science, I started to make contact with the industry, and I realized that I was on a path to become another code-monkey working 8hr/day in a dark room making somebody else rich. I thought to myself, "There MUST be another way!" That's when I came across Unscripted. It blew my mind with every chapter, and I knew this was what I was looking for. After reading TMF, I dropped out of college to make create something of my own, and here I am.

Many of my friends and family suggested that I should just finish my 3rd & 4th year, get my degree, go into a $100,000/year entry CS job, save money, then work on starting my company down the line. Perhaps I'm reckless/impatient, but I have $8000. That means that I can start NOW. Time is the most important resource I have, so spending 3-4 years just to "start with more money and backup jobs" seems insane to me. On the bright side, my college academic advisor did tell me that because of my shining 3.98 GPA, reentering college would not be a problem (not that I plan to), so I use this to calm down my (understandably) triggered parents/peers.

Either way, it's do or die time for me! Find your friendly-neighborhood homeless entrepreneur at your local Starbucks, bumming off wifi, and wracking his brain because of his (temporarily) inadequate programming skills!

Libraries are good "coworking" spaces too Check meetup.com for local programmer meetups - you can learn a lot from the good groups, and maybe trade server side scripting for front end design or something. Most cities with even a mid-sized population seem to have a Slack channel for local devs too. Get some local community and some time searching for solutions on Stack Overflow, and you'll be coding a lot faster than you would just attending college classes. Focus on real problems you want to solve, real projects, and it comes fast. I hope things go well for you!

You got balls kid. You got balls. I enjoy reading about determination and the 'willing to do anything' attitude. Sleeping in your car for your dreams is great and all, and I would do it if I had to, but I think you are being a bit extreme.

Hear me out.

You say you have no income and $8k in the bank. Living expenses at $300 per month will give you 26 months until you're broke. $500 per month will give you 16 months. And that's assuming nothing in life is thrown at you, blown out tire, broken laptop, etc.. I'd say you have 1 year to make some money or you're screwed.

That being said it is very hard to create a profitable business in under a year. Especially when you have no experience and no money. If you use any of that 8 grand to start a business then that eats at your months until broke. VERY risky.

You literally have no cushion at all. One mistake can wipe you out.

What's the answer to this riddle? How can you solve this problem? All you have to do is get your hands on some greenbacks. You can do this by either doing your own thing or you can get a job. Remember your time frame is one year.

If I were you, I'd get a job. With no income the clock is ticking. And when time runs out your done. Your parents will say I told you so and you will have to get a job and/or go back to school. A job now can give you support and heck maybe even your own place to live. And you can start your own thing on the side without risking death by starvation.

There are a lot of great entrepreneurs that have gone down in history, and almost all of them started out with jobs. You also learn a ton in a job, unlike school, and you can use that knowledge for future businesses.

I applaud your bravery on reaching your dreams. But there is a line between bravery and stupidity, and I don't want you to cross it.

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." ~Henry Ford

@lewj24 I should probably clarify: (for better or for worse) I have a lot of cushion from my perspective. Luckily enough, my parents are completely willing/eager to financially support me IF I choose to follow their preferred scripted path for me. If I were to go back to college to finish my CS degree and get a job, they would take me into their home in a heartbeat.

However, you are definitely correct in saying that the clock is ticking... I only have 16-26 months to pursue fastlane on my own terms, owning my time completely. If I don't generate profit in that time, I will be forced to go back to the control of my parent's household as well as the university for survival.

@lewj24 I should probably clarify: (for better or for worse) I have a lot of cushion from my perspective. Luckily enough, my parents are completely willing/eager to financially support me IF I choose to follow their preferred scripted path for me. If I were to go back to college to finish my CS degree and get a job, they would take me into their home in a heartbeat.

However, you are definitely correct in saying that the clock is ticking... I only have 16-26 months to pursue fastlane on my own terms, owning my time completely. If I don't generate profit in that time, I will be forced to go back to the control of my parent's household as well as the university for survival.

Click to expand...

No I assumed this already. I also assume you don't want to move back in with them and go back to school. Your actions clearly state that you don't want to go back. Imagine the mocking. It already happens to me and I'm not even as extreme as you. I can see it now, every Christmas your family will give you a hard time, "Hey remember when you were homeless lol how'd that work for you?" "It's a good thing mommy and daddy are here or you'd still be living in your car!" "Hey how are your wild, fantasy dreams coming? You rich yet lol?"

I'm afraid if you fail in a year and have to move back in with your parents and go back to school you will deem yourself a failure and give up on the dream. You'll think you tried but in reality you didn't. In reality the dream could take a decade, or two. The dream could take working 40 hours for somebody else during the day and 40 hours working for yourself at night.

Honestly what your doing right now is easy. No job. No bills. Go to the gym to workout and shower. Go to the library and Starbucks and learn code and attempt to start a company. The only hard thing is sleeping in your car. Until shit hits the fan and you have no money. Then you go back to your life before you made the decision to get rich.

I worry that you have an all or nothing approach. And I worry that if you don't get it all within a year then you will settle for nothing for the rest of your life.

Last edited: Sep 2, 2018

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." ~Henry Ford

Doesn't make sense. Do you know the payoff profile of software products? About 20 to 1, "make nothing" to "worth the time".

It would be far more logical, for the purposes of not sleeping in your car and dodging window-knocking cops, to focus on getting a job or starting freelancing.

You should finish that degree. It's one of the few that actually has value, and I say that as a college-hater. You think you're going to make some amazing product from your car "bumming Starbucks wifi", and get baller rich, like some kind of Rocky story, while others fail 10-to-1 with millions in finance and teams behind them?

Time to come back down to earth, millennial. There's one place you will build up programming skills: that degree, followed by a job. And you'll even be able to pay rent!

What you're doing is irrational and self-destructive. You are not in a position to go for the fastlane. Finish the degree, get a job, and save more money.

Oh? You read that in his post?
Feel free to point out where he said that.

Instead of trying to be so enlightened and all-knowing, while criticizing everyone here, why don't you give your own advice?

Click to expand...

Why? Because he didn't ask for it. Also could you explain how I'm "trying to be so enlightened and all-knowing" when I'm not the one reading minds and dishing out advice other people didn't ask for?

In case you missed the OP, here it is again for you.

Hello everyone, glad to be here! Let me tell you a bit about myself:

I'm a 21-year-old (aspiring) entrepreneur. I have a humble $8000 in my bank account and I'm currently living in my car (yep, you read that correctly) while learning how to program. Luckily, my expenses are around $300-500/month, so I have more than enough time to code the product I'm looking to create.

*flashback transition*

As a 3rd-year university student majoring computer-science, I started to make contact with the industry, and I realized that I was on a path to become another code-monkey working 8hr/day in a dark room making somebody else rich. I thought to myself, "There MUST be another way!" That's when I came across Unscripted. It blew my mind with every chapter, and I knew this was what I was looking for. After reading TMF, I dropped out of college to make create something of my own, and here I am.

Many of my friends and family suggested that I should just finish my 3rd & 4th year, get my degree, go into a $100,000/year entry CS job, save money, then work on starting my company down the line. Perhaps I'm reckless/impatient, but I have $8000. That means that I can start NOW. Time is the most important resource I have, so spending 3-4 years just to "start with more money and backup jobs" seems insane to me. On the bright side, my college academic advisor did tell me that because of my shining 3.98 GPA, reentering college would not be a problem (not that I plan to), so I use this to calm down my (understandably) triggered parents/peers.

Either way, it's do or die time for me! Find your friendly-neighborhood homeless entrepreneur at your local Starbucks, bumming off wifi, and wracking his brain because of his (temporarily) inadequate programming skills!

Click to expand...

I hope you weren't planning on saying one sentence and then leaving without expanding on your thought that could potentially help this guy who is currently homeless.

Click to expand...

He didn't ask for my advice, and he didn't ask for help. He posted what he's doing and how he's doing it. So which of us is trying to be the enlightened know it all?

Also could you explain how I'm "trying to be so enlightened and all-knowing" when I'm not the one reading minds

Click to expand...

You basically said he's the only one doing anything and everyone else in this thread is doing nothing so he shouldn't listen to anyone. Even though you have no clue what we are doing. Or what he is doing. That was a back-handed comment that assumed a lot of things without giving any constructive advice.

What I was trying to say earlier was that the one sentence you wrote was advice, whether you think it was or not, and you should expand on it to help this guy.

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." ~Henry Ford

@EatMan do you have a problem you're trying to solve with your software yet? Not asking what it is, just if you have one. If so... started talking to users / people with that problem, or know when you will?

@EatMan do you have a problem you're trying to solve with your software yet? Not asking what it is, just if you have one. If so... started talking to users / people with that problem, or know when you will?

Keep on truckin.

Click to expand...

Not Yet! I'm still at the learning stage, but I expect that there will be numerous troubleshooting when I actually get down to building it!

Keep your eyes open for one. You don't need to know all the code before solving the problem, in my experience. You'll figure out the code when you know what problem you're solving. Until then, nothing wrong with sharpening your skills.

Well, you've got a 3.98 in CS. You're likely not lacking in talent nor capability, what you might lack is a good idea. Many times people get their Fastlane idea inspiration from working many years in their respective industry. One day they just get sick of hearing people bitching about XXX and they do something about it. That is one caveat of not finishing school and going to work, even if it sucks for a little bit. Just discussing hypotheticals here, this is a major life decision so I'll try to be objective.

I suppose having the degree could help beef up your cred when you're trying to swing a potential client, but really your work should speak for itself if you're good. Some people who live in their cars have them set up in such a way that they can drive for Uber or Lyft during the day to make extra money, studying or working on their projects while waiting for a ride to come along. Just some food for thought I guess.